Paths Chosen
by silent diamond
Summary: Everyone's goal ultimately is to obtain peace, no matter the methods...some paths just leads up to more Carnage.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: This fanfic will be great if you have faith and stick to it. It will maintain some elements of the series but will go down its own path. Follow Favorite and leave a review, it'll motivate me to continue writing this. Also the Uchiha massacre occurred three years later than original plot. And Assume every character is wearing their normal outfits if I don't describe it.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Naruto Shippuden. I however own the few OC's placed in here.

Chapter 1

"I-I c-can't move!" a blond spiky haired blue eyed child yelled out in anguish. His body had felt ablaze, the pain permeated through his body was the only thing he could feel.

His body was covered with cuts and bruises. This seemed like the only thing he ever really get from the villagers. Pain and loathing.

The villagers standing over him all looked at him with crazed smirks and glares. They had been planning this out for a while now. They stayed patient and learned his schedule, today was the day they chose to make their plan come to fruition.

They had someone following him the entire day. Watching, making sure that he followed his routine of going to the academy, the ramen stand, and hanging out with his only friend.

They had finally caught him where they want him, in one of the leaf's village many alleyways alone on the way home for the day. One female villager suddenly stepped up out of the group, brandishing two kunai from her coat pocket.

"Your time has come Demon!" the lady spat in disgust getting ready to give the finishing blow. They had been beating him for 30 minutes now and it finally seemed like they broke the monster's spirits as it stopped begging them to stop. The remainder of the mob applauded as the chosen woman to finish the demon got ready to give the final blow.

She would finally be able to rid the world of the demon that killed her daughter and plagued Konoha!

"Naruto!" there was a loud shout at the front of the alleyway that caught the attention of Naruto and the mob as a girl who looked to be around the boy's age ran right towards them.

Her voice was laced with the sound of fear mixed with confusion. She had pure black hair in twin pig tails with black eyes. She wore a black dress with black shorts under them with blue ninja sandals.

Naruto's eyes widened at the familiar voice! "Y-Yuki-chan stay away!" Naruto hated for her to see him like this, she was his only friend and no matter how much they hurt him, he wouldn't be able to bear it if they hurt her.

Yuki ignored her friends warning without a doubt as she continued running until she skidded in between Naruto himself and the mob. She spread out her small arms to protect Naruto as she gave a seething glare at the mob. She didn't know why people hated her best friend, but one thing she knew was that it was wrong and she wouldn't let them do it when she was around!

Her and Naruto had been friends since they joined the academy when they were six, they were ten now. Today, they had recently finished playing after leaving Ichiraku and as she was heading home, she noticed he had dropped his frog wallet, so decided to drop it off. That's when she stumbled across him and the mob.

"What's going on!? Why are you attacking my friend?" the young girl asked as the mob immediately frowned looking at one another immediately muttering. "Does the demon has her under hypnosis?" "Maybe it's threatening her". Yuki gritted her teeth in anger listening to the stupid villagers.

"NO. NARUTO IS MY BESTFRIEND, HE DOESN'T BOTHER ANYONE WHY ARE YOU ALL SO MEAN?" Yuki yelled in frustration.

"This THING is NOT your friend little girl, I think you should go home and forget this entire night" one man from the mob stated with the others agreeing.

Yuki immediately shook her head in refusal. Ever since she had met the Uzumaki she noticed he had no friends and the villagers glared at him. She didn't know why everyone hated her best friend but she wouldn't allow them to hurt him any longer!

"NO! Naruto-kun's my best friend, I wont allow you evil people to hurt him, he hasn't done anything to anyone!" Yuki shouted dropping into a sloppy version of the famous Uchiha fighting Stance.

Maybe if they could've recognized it, they would've knew she was a child of the noble Uchiha clan and there next move would've been different, but seeing as they were just villagers and not ninja they wouldn't.

Naruto looked up at Yuki with fear as he tried to force his body to move out of his downed position. "Y-Yuki-chan n-no! G-Go away! Its too dangerous!" Naruto struggled out coughing out the blood that came up from his fractured lungs.

Yuki turned her glare towards Naruto. "I won't! You're my best friend! I refuse to leave you alone!" she shouted at the boy causing him to tear up. He never had anyone to care so much for him. The villagers immediately began muttering between one another.

"The demon must've corrupted this poor child." one muttered. "Yes it's sad really" another muttered, "Maybe it's a trick from the demon" another said as the woman with the kunai shrugged. "it matters not! The Demon's whore will just die alongside its mate!" the woman shouted as she ran towards the two children with the weapons.

Naruto's eyes widened as Yuki fully stood in front of him with her stance, ready to take on the lady. "YUKI-CHAN NOOO!" Naruto shouted in fear and worry for his friends life as he tried to force his body to get up but the most he could do was a sitting position. Yuki looked at him with a smile, "I'll always protect you"

"-eam 7..Naruto Uzumaki, Sakura Haruno, and Sasuke Uchiha. Jonin instructor Kakashi Hatake. Team 8-" Iruka was saying as Naruto snapped out of his thoughts. The blonde was two years older. His hair was the same spiky blonde that it was but his blue eyes lacked the warmth that they once held.

He wore a black trench coat, under the trench coat was a skin tight black shirt with dark blue cargo pants with many pockets and black ninja sandals. He also had the leaf headband tied around his forehead.

Naruto's mind couldn't help but to go back to that fateful day. Him and his friend Yuki always dreamt of the day they would become ninjas. He couldn't help but to think of her now that he was finally able to live out their dream.

"Yuki-chan, I've done it" Naruto thought, out of his peripheral he could see his new teammate Sakura sit next to Sasuke as she immediately began to bother the preteen. This cause Naruto to frown, "..Although I could've done without the fangirl" he thought as he got up, deciding to join his team.

Sakura, who saw the blonde walking towards them couldn't help but to have mixed feelings. When she first met the blond five years ago, he was a kind idiot child who was always happy. He was dead last in the academy, but he never gave up.

This was the case for three straight years as everything changed over two years ago. He grew cold, distant, and quiet. He even improved so much in the two year time span that he was able to graduate in the top ten percent of the class.

Naruto nodded at the two as he sat next to them with the Uchiha nodding back. To Sasuke, Naruto's always been an interesting person. The blond was probably the only other person in the academy to understand his pain, plus he respected the blonde's new found strength.

Naruto must've worked hard to be able to catch up and surpass the majority of the class in such a short time frame.

As Iruka finished up teams, the jonin instructors one by one began picking up their genin. Two hours later, team 7 was the only team left in the academy.

Sakura groaned, "where is this guy? Did he forget or something?" she asked only to be met with the silence of Naruto and Sasuke.

Naruto observed both his teammates. He watched as Sakura paced back and forth in frustration, he could also see the small furrow in Sasuke's brow that gave off that he was getting agitated with the man's tardiness.

Naruto sighed, his teammates were right to be mad, there jonin sensei must was a joke, what leader in their right mind would ditch on his own genin team. It was unprofessional.

The door to the room immediately opened as a gravity defying silver haired man with a jonin flak jacket walked in the room. Sakura immediately pointed an accusing finger at the man "You're late!" she shouted as the man looked embarrassed.

"Whoa hey I'm sorry I'm late. I just got caught on the road of life trying to get here" the man stated giving a light chuckle as he scratched his head. It was an embarrassing silence, the genin members of team 7 all gave him deadpanned unbelieving looks.

"tsk he comes two hours late and the best he could come up with was a lame excuse like that" Naruto thought frowning disapproving of the man. He didn't seem competent at all. "You're lying!" Sakura shouted. Kakashi, who was identified by Iruka as their jonin instructor just chuckled as he analyzed his team.

"okay lets see, the pink haired girl is loud and her muscle definition seems to be lacking severely, but from reports that's not surprising seeing as she's in her fangirl phase, the Uchiha's a lot more subdued, that's most likely due to what happened with the Uchiha clan but I hear he's the prodigy of this generation, and finally…the blond, reports says he use to be a loud brat, but the death of his best friend changed him into this serious calculative person, interesting bunch if I do say so myself" Kakashi surmised.

"First thoughts of this team is, I don't really like you" he eye-smiled. "Meet me on the rooftop" he stated before he body flickered. "What an odd man" Naruto thought as he and Sasuke immediately got up, walking to the stairs that lead to the roof entrance.

"Wait for me!" Sakura shouted as she scrambled to follow her team mates.

Five minutes later, the entire team 7 was on the roof top. The genin were sitting out in front of Kakashi who had his face inside of a little book titled "Make-out Paradise".

"Okay, now that we're a team, we need to get to know each other a little. Let's start off with your name, likes, dislikes, and dreams for the future" Kakashi stated as Sakura raised her hand.

Kakashi eye-smiled. "Yes pinky?" Kakashi asked as Sakura's eye twitched. "Why won't you go first sensei? You know as an example." Sakura asked as Kakashi closed his book. "For supposedly having brains, she shouldn't need an example for such clear instructions. "Kakashi thought.

"Hmm…well okay. My name is Kakashi Hatake,..I guess I never really thought about what I like..and I don't really dislike anything in particular. Dreams for the future? I guess it's safe to say I don't really have one" Kakashi eye-smiled.

Sakura sweat-dropped as the entire team looked at Kakashi bewildered. "All we've learned was his name" Sasuke thought alongside Naruto who had the exact thoughts. "Your turn Pinky" Kakashi spoke bringing his book back out as Sakura huffed.

"First off, My name's Sakura Haruno, not pinky" she started with another huff as Kakashi gave a light chuckle much to the girl's ire. "My likes include.."*looks at Sasuke* Sakura blushed "umm m-my dislikes are Ino-pig!" she spat the name in disgust. "and those who bully the weak, my dream for the future is.."*looks at Sasuke and immediately starts to blush and stare at him dreamily.

"..Yep she's got it bad" Kakashi thought. "alright you're up next brooder" Kakashi stated pointing at Sasuke who glared at the man.

"..The name's Sasuke Uchiha and I don't really like anything in particular. What I hate however is a lot of things, and dreams? I don't have a dream because what I have will become a reality. I'm going to hunt down and kill a certain someone and then restore the Uchiha clan to it's former glory" Sasuke spoke coolly as Sakura looked at him in awe.

"Sasuke-kun's So cool!" Sakura thought as Naruto raised a brow at the Uchiha.

Kakashi internally sighed, "it's going to take a lot to try to stir this one down the right path". "Okay and finally you blondie" Kakashi said nodding to Naruto.

"My name's Naruto Uzumaki..I don't in particular like anyone or anything besides training..my dislikes are those who are weak and those who prey on the weak, and my goal was to become a ninja. Now that it's reach, I have nothing" the genin spoke in a voice void of emotion.

Sasuke looked at the blond with interest. It seemed that he valued training as much as him, maybe he'd serve to be useful and not dead weight as a teammate unlike Sakura.

Kakashi only internally sighed again. "Hokage-sama really must've had it out for me. He gave me a fangirl and two emotionally unstable kids. I've got my work cut out for me" Kakashi thought crying out tears on the inside.

Inside the outskirts of a small village near Rain Village

Heavy rain fell down in loud splashes as it came upon impact with the ground. The only sound that seemed to overpower the deafening pitter patter of the rain was the sound of three kids laughing joyously.

There were three boys, just turned preteens all in a field playing catch with a small red ball.

"Pass it to me!" the first boy shouted with his hands out stretched. He had spiky white hair that gave off a light blue hue with grey eyes.

He wore a dark grey collar shirt with purple sleeves and black cargos. The second boy smiled excitedly, "ha-ha, here it go Tsezuma(seh-zoom-ay)!" he shouted throwing the ball.

He had black hair in a single ponytail with two bangs framing his face. His eyes were a dough brown color. He wore a navy blue slim fit short sleeved shirt with durable khaki shorts.

Tsezuma caught the ball as it hit his chest with a hard impact. Hey not so hard Azume(ah-zah-me)!" Tsezuma spoke as the third boy chuckled, speaking up.

"Tsk stop whining, it couldn't have hurt", the boy had dark blue almost black wavy hair that went to his shoulders with black eyes. He wore a dark blue thin long sleeved shirt with black cargo shorts.

Tsezuma pouted playfully, "Miaku(me-ah-coo) you don't know how hard that ball hit!" he shouted playfully pointing at the boy as the three all laughed.

They continued to have a good time for a few more minutes before deciding to wrap it up and head back into the village. They walked for a couple of minutes before Tsezuma sniffed the air.

"..Hey, you guys smell that?" He asked with a confused look. He could distinctly smell something burning, Azume and Miaku both looked confused as they started to sniff too, that's when they picked up the smell themselves.

"Come on, let's go" Azume spoke seriously as he immediately began running along with Miaku and Tsezuma. With them running full speed, it only took them a couple of minutes to reach their village. What awaited them left them all in a state of shock.

Everything was engulfed in flames, building after building was crumbled to the ground in debris and ash. The air was permeated with a disgusting smell of burnt flesh and iron the deeper you go into the village.

Miaku frowned looking in a state of shock, "no no no!" he shouted in disbelief. "Come on, let's check for survivors, we have to get to the bottom of this!" Tsezuma shouted running off in the village with his two friends following behind him.

The three ran past building after building searching everywhere, on the ground littered bodies with attack wounds and bodies lit on fire. It was total bloodshed.

Tsezuma couldn't keep the tears out of his eyes. "Who would do this?" he thought in total despair as they continued their search.

"Hey! I got one!" Azume shouted so Miaku and Tsezuma could come to him. Azume was kneeling over a man who had a stab wound through his stomach with burn marks littered across his self, he seemed to be on the verge of death.

"What happened here?" Azume asked the man who immediately began coughing up blood. Azume lifted his head to make sure he didn't choke on his own blood.

"S-Some ninja attacked, *cough* t-they started a slaughter and ransacked the village for it's resources" the man choked out.

Miaku stepped up, "What village were they from?" he asked balling his fists in anger and sadness.

"I-I don't know. They had blank headbands" the man said immediately going into a coughing fit afterwards. His wounds started to catch up to him as his breath quickly shortened.

The three couldn't help but to watch in silence as the man took one last gasp before he went silent. The most they could do was allow him not to die alone.

Miaku immediately began shaking, tears cascaded down his eyes, all he felt was anger and sadness.

"When we was younger in the orphanage, it had a surplus of kids because we were so close to the zones where all the fighting takes place…Those ninjas from those villages always come to our village for whatever reason they have and cause destruction! Be it our resources or using our home as another battlefield...they've done it this time...They must pay!" he shouted out in pure rage.

Tsezuma frowned, "Miaku..you need to calm down, if we think irrational it'll only lead to our deaths, we don't even know what village the ninja are aligned with we can't go off attacking every ninja we see, plus we have little to no experience in the ninja arts right now." Tsezuma said as Azume nodded.

"He's right, we'll be asking for our deaths" Azume stated as Miaku growled balling his fist, "I'm tired of having to be a scapegoat for others, they've beaten and used us for too long! There has to be something we could do!" he shouted as Tsezuma and Azuma nodded agreeing.

"The question is what to do?" Azume asked, there was a couple seconds of silence as Tsezuma spoke up. "Let's start training in the ninja arts. We've always talked about training in the arts and we've always had bigger chakra then everyone else in our village. As we are, If we were in the village while it was getting attacked, we would've died too, but if we were training, we could've possibly put a stop to it. We could've protected our home and all of these people wouldn't have had to lose their life for nothing. I'm tired of being weak and scared" he spoke tearing up.

"Yes..I refuse to stay this weak..I refuse to be this vulnerable ever again" Miaku stated balling his fist promising to himself. "We will get stronger together, we won't ever have to be so helpless again" Azume said as the three nodded to one another, silently promising.

*clap clap clap* The three immediately whipped their heads to the sound of someone clapping. "ha-ha-ha, great little speech kids, you moved me."

They saw a small battalion compromised of 5 blank headband wearing ninja as one spoke out. "Yeah, too bad you guys won't live to see your dreams come to fruition" one said as they all whipped out kunai knives. " **DIE**!" the first one to speak shouted.

Kunai whipped through the air fast as over a dozen rained upon them.


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: Review, favorite, and follow :)

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Naruto Shippuden.

Review Responses:

Steavatron- first off, thanks for the review. Wanted to say, I understand how you can't care for the characters in the first chapter. Even though it seems half baked at the moment, I specifically chose to write it this way. My intentions are to show you where the characters are at in the present before diving in to show what happened to them to cause such developments in their character so that it could help build a connection and help understand why they are the way they are. Hopefully you'd still be reading when more of this get shown, also I will take your advice and read more fanfics, thanks.

Chapter 2

Next Day Konoha

*RING* *RING* *R-* Naruto immediately smashed his hand on the insufferable ringing of his alarm clock. It was truly a double edged sword on early mornings like these.

He slowly sat up in his bed, groggily stretching the kinks from his body. Placed on him, were a pair of dark blue pajamas that swayed as he slowly dragged his body to the bathroom for a shower.

Perhaps he wouldn't be tired if his dreams didn't plague him of memories of Yuki-chan. She was a constant loop in his mind.

Naruto adjusted the water to his liking before stripping to hop in the shower. He had no time to waste, from what Kakashi told them yesterday before they left, the real genin training exam would be today at training ground 7 around 7:30.

With Sasuke

Silence. Complete and udder silence permeated the house. The once lovely home filled with warmth was now simply a cold sleeping quarter void of life for the young Uchiha.

Sasuke slowly walked to the kitchen as he was suddenly hit with a wave of nostalgia and a memory.

Flashback

Gigging and sweet laughter filled the kitchen as a muddied Sasuke piggybacking Itachi barged through the doors. Mikoto who was currently humming and cutting up vegetables in a large pot, looked at her two boys with a warm smile.

"What have I told you two about coming in the kitchen all dirty, go get cleaned up" she stated with a motherly smile causing the young Sasuke to pout. "Aww but mommy I'm hungry" he stated giving her the puppy eyes look.

Before she could break and relent, her husband Fugaku came to her rescue. "Go get cleaned up like your mother asked, the food isn't ready yet, but by the time you two are finished perhaps it would be" he stated not once looking up from his paperwork fot the Konoha police force.

He wouldn't let Sasuke even get a chance to catch him with his sad eyes this time!

Itachi chuckled at his precious little brother's attempt. "Come on Sasuke" he spoke turning to offer him a kind smile.

Flashback end

Sasuke sighed, in the kitchen was nothing but deathly silence, but even the silence was loudly unbearable sometimes.

It seemed to scream to him memories of the past which made his resolve of killing Itachi that much stronger.

With Sakura

"Sakura honey come eat your breakfast!" Mebuki Haruno, mother of Sakura Haruno yelled upstairs to her daughter.

She had prepared an entire breakfast for her daughter as today was a milestone for her. She had prepared toast, eggs, rice cakes, and orange juice for her breakfast.

Loud stomps were heard in rapid session as Sakura ran down the steps in her signature red dress, "Mom I told you yesterday Kakashi-sensei told us not to eat any breakfast" Sakura stated exasperated. Her mother was stubborn!

Mebuki frowned "I remember, but I'd worry much less if you eat before you go, it's dangerous to be doing that hard ninja work without food in your stomach." she said causing Sakura to sigh as she glanced at the meal.

Her stomach immediately growled at the pleasant sight of the delicious food spread across the table as she started to have second thoughts. Her mother did take her time to prepare the food..

"Well, I guess I can take a few bites" Sakura blushed looking away in embarrassment as her stomach growled once again causing Mebuki to give her a knowing smile.

30 Minutes Later

Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura all seemed to make it to the clearing exactly five minutes earlier then the time Kakashi stated, each walking from the direction of their respective homes.

Sakura immediately smiled and waved at Sasuke. "Good morning Sasuke-kun!" Sakura excitedly yelled out to the boy who simply gave a small glare to her.

"How could she be so loud in the morning?" Sasuke thought with a slight frown as he walked over to a tree in the clearing and lied back against it, determined to wait in silence for Kakashi.

Sakura immediately deflated at the idea that her crush was angry with her, that's when she noticed Naruto passing by her to head to a tree of his own. "Good morning Naruto" Sakura spoke to the boy as he gave a curt nod.

This was the last the three spoke to each other as a pregnant silence erupted. Soon twenty minutes passed by, Kakashi was still absent and the training ground was still quiet.

The three were all in their on thoughts. Sakura, about her getting Sasuke to forgive her, Sasuke, about the training exam they were about to take, and Naruto who was thinking that Kakashi must've had a track record for being late.

30 minutes later

"AHH! WHERE IS HE!" Sakura shouted out in rage. "HE WAS SUPPOSED TO BE HERE FORTY MINUTES AGO!" she fumed pacing around the training ground.

"See this is what I meant when I said I could do without her on the team, *sigh* but she is right, he should've been here." Naruto thought in slight irritation.

He didn't go through the entire academy only to go to a team with a jonin sensei who wasn't even responsible enough to show up on time.

With Kakashi

He had been hidden within a tree in the training ground watching his team ever since they had come, to say he was disappointed with them was an understatement.

Since they've been their, they barely uttered a word to each other and for them to be a sufficient team, they would need to learn about each other and get along outside of missions. Although he couldn't say he didn't expect it considering the team.

"Hmm, anyway I guess it's time to show myself" the jonin uttered to himself as he shunshined right in front of the three.

"HEY YOU'RE LATE AGAIN!" Sakura shrieked out furious at their sensei's blatant tardiness.

Kakashi simply eye-smiled giving a slight chuckle, "Sorry about that, I was actually on the way here earlier but a black cat seemed to try to cross paths with me so I had to take the other way around the village" the man said causing the three genin to sweat drop.

"Do he honestly think we would believe that" Sasuke thought in disbelief. Kakashi suddenly grew serious, "Okay, as I've told you yesterday, the true genin exam is today" he spoke in all seriousness which was a surprise to the genin at such an attitude switch.

Kakashi first pulled out a white alarm clock as he sat it on a vacant tree stump in the edge of the training field. He then brandished a pair of bells out of his kunai pouch dangling them in front of the genin.

"The rules to this test are fairly simple, each of you have two hours to get a bell, if you get one you pass, however if time runs out and you find yourself without a bell, you fail and will be sent back to the academy" he stated.

"What? But it's only two bells and it's three of us, that means someone's automatically being sent back to the academy" Sakura stated as Sasuke's hands tensed as images of Itachi popped up in his head. "I've got to get one of those bells, I've come to far to stumble now!"

Meanwhile Naruto's eyes narrowed. "Something's got to be up, why would he use a test that basically forces at the least one of us to fail?" he thought to himself trying to rack his brain for an answer.

"You can use whatever means necessary to obtain you a bell, I advise you not to hold back and come at me with the intent to kill, because if you don't, you will not get a bell." Kakashi said as he started the timer.

"Your two hours starts now!" he stated as all three genin quickly dispersed.

Kakashi couldn't see the genin, but he still could sense their chakra signatures as he chuckled. "It's good to see that they could hide, okay so where was I?" he thought aloud to himself as he pulled out his little orange book.

With Naruto

He was still contemplating the weird rules of the test that they were currently taking. Something just wasn't adding up. Throughout all the various ninja teams he ever saw in Konoha, one similarity between them all was that they were all three cell teams. If Kakashi failed one of them, then they wouldn't be three cells. So what was he missing?

Naruto's eyes suddenly widened, "I've got to find Sasuke and Sakura!" he thought before leaving his hiding place to go look for the Uchiha. If he could get Sasuke on board, Sakura would easily follow behind.

With Sasuke

He watched silently through the bushes he was hiding in as he watched Kakashi read his smut. He had to be patient, wait for the exact time to strike. He couldn't afford to not get a bell. Getting sent back to the academy would only postpone his goal of killing Itachi!

Sasuke wasn't dumb though, he knew Kakashi was a jonin so even though the man may seemed like a joke, his skills had to be elite to make it that high on the food chain.

He watched for a couple more minutes, letting Kakashi feel safe as he slowly brandished two kunai. He waited for his opportunity to strike..

"Hey Sasuke!" Naruto whispered to get the other boy's attention.

Sasuke whipped his head around leveling the blonde with a glare, "What do you want! We're in the middle of our test!" the Uchiha whispered back.

"I think we should work together" Naruto whispered as Sasuke scoffed. He didn't think the blonde was still as dumb as he was in the earlier years.

"Now why would I work with you to get a bell when it's every man for themselves, the first bell we snatch we'll both end up fighting for it" Sasuke whispered then smirked. "Plus I'm an Uchiha, we don't need help, you'll only slow me down" he finished.

Naruto grit his teeth in anger, "for rookie of the year, you sure are stupid" he spat at the dark haired boy who fiercely glared at him. "Say's the idiot that could've been deadlast" he spat back as they glared at each other in anger.

They kept the glares up for a few seconds before Naruto sighed in resignation.

"I didn't come here to argue Sasuke. Just hear me out'' the Uzumaki said as the Uchiha reluctantly nodded.

"Sasuke we live in a ninja village where we see ninja teams every single day, each team I've seen in this village has been three cells and come to think of it, our village Konoha prides it's self on it's comradery. So ask yourself this, why are we taking a test that only allows two members to pass and one to fail'' Naruto said. Sasuke thought for a few seconds, first confusion filled his eyes before they widened.

"..This test is designed to put us against each other to see what we'd do" the Uchida boy whispered as Naruto nodded, he knew Sasuke would figure it out.

"Let's find Sakura" Naruto said as Sasuke nodded as the two went off to find the pink haired girl.

With Kakashi

He had heard the entire conversation between the two boys as he couldn't help but to smile. "I see the training Hokage-sama assigned to Naruto helped tremendously." Kakashi couldn't help but to think of the incident that resulted in Naruto's training. That young Uchiha girl's death.

"Well now I wait I guess" Kakashi spoke to himself as he flicked another page of his book.

With Naruto and Sasuke

They found Sakura with relative ease, the young girl was confused to see the two, but with a quick explanation she with no hesitation joined them.

"Okay first things first we need to know what each other is capable of to build a plan accordingly, I know how to do henge, kawarami, shadow clone jutsu, which is a jutsu that let's me create solid clones, and one wind release technique. My taijutsu skills are also above average" Naruto said as one of Sasuke's eyes quirked.

"So he knows elemental jutsu as well" Sasuke thought, Naruto was slowly but surely becoming more and more interesting. Sakura's train of thoughts were similar to Sasuke's as her eyes widened.

"He knows elemental jutsu? That's beyond a fresh genin's level! I didn't think anyone in our age group would be capable of such a feat besides maybe Sasuke-kun" Sakura thought.

"I can perform all three jutsu taught at the academy, I excel at shurikenjutsu, I have two fire release jutsu and is also well versed at the Uchiha's fighting style" Sasuke spoke up as Naruto gave him an appreciative nod, one thing that he respected and admired was strength and the Uchiha seemed to have that in spades.

Sakura suddenly grew nervous, how could she compare to the two of them, they already knew jutsu the academy didn't teach! The two boys eyed her, waiting for her to add what she knew. "Uhh, I-I only know the three jutsu the academy taught and my taijutsu is slightly below average" She spoke lowering her head in shame, compared to those two she really didn't know anything.

Naruto sighed, that was expected, during the academy Sakura was the type to focus more on her appearance rather than her actual shinobi skills. If they passed this test, he hoped she'd take things more serious.

"Well now that we got that out of the way, we need a plan to take action against Kakashi-sensei, he's an experienced jonin so therefore his skills outweigh ours" Naruto stated as Sakura eyes lit up.

She may didn't have much to offer skill wise at the moment but intelligence wise she was one of the top back in the academy, maybe she could be of some use after all.

Forty-five Minutes Later

Kakashi flicked his book to another page as he inwardly sighed. "They only have an hour and fifteen minutes left and they've yet to set a move, I wonder do I have to go after them" he thought.

His answers were soon met by Naruto and Sasuke coming out from separate sides of the training field rushing him from two sides.

The two quickly started attacking the Jonin with their respective taijutsu styles. Kakashi eye-smiled. "Nice to see you finally arrive" Kakashi stated blocking a kick by the Uchiha. He then had to duck a power punch threw by Naruto as he quickly backed up.

"You two seem pretty fast, I may have to put my book up for this" Kakashi said as he put the orange booklet in his back pocket. Sasuke smirked, "We're not like the rest in the academy" he stated as they rushed the jonin again.

Naruto threw a barrage of punches with Kakashi dodging each strike. Sasuke quickly jumped in from the side throwing a jumping kick as Kakashi ducked, grabbing the Uchiha leg tossing him.

Sasuke immediately flipped mid air grabbing six kunai as Naruto backed as he launched them at the jonin. Kakashi quickly whipped out a kunai knocking them all out of harms way.

"You're good, but I'm afraid not good enough" Kakashi eye-smiled at the two genin who only smirked.

"Kakashi-sensei you're a jonin, you should know better than anybody not to underestimate an opponent" Naruto said rushing the man.

Naruto threw a uppercut that was immediately blocked, he then followed it up with a fast sweep kick as Kakashi quickly jumped over it.

Sasuke then jumped in throwing a punch towards Kakashi's head as the man blocked.

Sasuke then followed up the punch with another one from his other hand as Kakashi kept up his guard to block.

Sasuke then twisted his body around Kakashi's guard, "You're open!" he yelled aiming to drive his knee up Kakashi's skull. The man being a jonin acted fast, grabbing the boy's knee.

This however left him open for Naruto as he tried to grab the bells off Kakashi's waist. Before he could however, the man replaced himself with a log.

He chuckled, "If I were another shinobi you would've for sure got me there" he eye-smiled at the two.

For them to start working together on the fly, their teamwork was good.

"I hope this isn't all you've got though, because at this rate you won't get a bell." Kakashi said in all seriousness.

Instead of answering, Naruto performed the hand sign for his shadow clones.

Kakashi eyes immediately widened, "so when he was assigned that training they taught him the shadow clone jutsu as well" Kakashi thought.

Naruto rapidly created three clones back to back with each clone brandishing a kunai as he picked them up, launching them like they were missiles towards the jonin sensei.

Kakashi moved to the side of the first one, grabbed it's legs and spun around before launching it at one of the other clones causing both to puff out of space.

Before he could attack the third, it suddenly puffed out of space in front of him, surrounding him in fog.

Sasuke immediately flew through hand signs, "Firestyle Fireball Jutsu!" Sasuke yelled. A massive fireball drew from his mouth as it collided with the puff of smoke.

Kakashi immediately replaced himself with a log as he backed from the fog. "So Sasuke has jutsu too, he was right, they are quite different from the other konoha rookies." Kakashi thought staring at the two boys who were side to side.

"It's over Kakashi!" Sasuke yelled as he and Naruto both started to fly through hand signs. "Firestyle Phoenix Flower Jutsu!" "WindStyle Great Breakthrough" Sasuke and Naruto yelled in tangent.

The miniature fireballs all turned massive in size. Kakashi had to immediately jump back to dodge the first one as he flew through his own hand signs.

"Earth Style Mud Wall!" Kakashi yelled smacking the ground as a large earth wall rose from the ground.

The mud wall blocked five massive fireballs as Kakashi chuckled, "these kids are impressive" he thought amazed.

His praise was cut short as he had to whip out a kunai to knock down all the kunai knives that were raining upon him.

He looked around for the assailant to see Sakura, what confused him was the smirk on her face as she held up a sign.

Kakashi's eyes immediately widened noticing the sign as he whipped his head down to look at the kunai.

"Explosive tags!" he yelled out in surprise. He had no time to waist as he jumped high and away from the explosive papers connected to the kunai.

Seeing him midair again, Naruto quickly went through his hand signs for another great breakthrough. "Augh!" Kakashi grunted trying to block some of the wind from the attack as it sent him higher into the air.

"Now Sasuke!" Naruto yelled as the boy nodded, "I'm on it!" Sasuke yelled whipping out six shuriken throwing them at the airborne Kakashi.

Kakashi grabbed one of his kunai, deflecting the trajectory of the shurikens headed for his body, two of the shuriken seemed to be headed for the bells! Kakashi immediately deflected them but his eyes widened seeing another shuriken heading for the bells as it was hidden behind the other two!

Before it could cut the strings of the bells, the shuriken puffed to be Naruto as the boy launched for the bells. "I-I got it!" he thought feeling the bells in his hands.

"During that smoke cloud he must've created a clone to take his place as he henged into one of Sasuke's shuriken!" Kakashi thought. What a clever tactic!

As soon as he was closing his hands around them, Kakashi kawarami'd with Sasuke switching spots with the Uchiha as the two boys collided falling back to the ground.

"ugh dammnit" Naruto grunted as Sasuke grabbed his head from the collision.

Before they could move off the ground, Kakashi flew through hand signs, "Earthstyle Dark Swamp!" he yelled, the ground condensed as it started to shift and formed into mud, catching Naruto and Sasuke, it even spread out to catch Sakura from her little kunai throwing hiding place.

All three of the genin tried to move, but their efforts were fruitless as they were deeply rooted in the mud. "Good attempt, but it's over, you fail" Kakashi stated eye smiling, on cue the alarm ringed.

All three genin heads hung low in disappointment. Sasuke was in denial, "NO, NO th-that plan was spotless" Sasuke thought in anger. He didn't come this far to be sent back to the academy.

Naruto frowned, their teamwork was almost perfect. He then sighed, Kakashi was a jonin after all. He just couldn't go back to the academy though!

It was his and Yuki's dream to become ninja, he couldn't rot in a classroom.

"It's only one thing I have to say to you three" Kakashi spoke in a solemn voice. Sakura could barely hold back the tears "i-if only I trained harder, we maybe would've got the bells" she thought in complete sadness.

They had thought that their teamwork would be enough for them to pass, they had thoroughly made their plan to keep Kakashi on the ropes and they failed. "You pass" Kakashi spoke in a lighter tone eye-smiling at the three.

It was a complete silence as Kakashi chuckled. "You three passed the test, from listening to Naruto's and Sasuke's conversation earlier, I saw that you three realized the tests true agenda, teamwork. You just didn't realize it never had anything to do with the bells physically. Look underneath the underneath. Yes I told you that your mission objective was to get a bell and It was two bells with it being three of you, meaning someone was going to be without a bell. Instead of working alone and abandoning each other like the test designs, you three decided to work together. As a ninja, if you don't follow the objective of your mission you're considered trash. That's true, but if you abandon a comrade in a time of need then you're worse then trash." Kakashi spoke softly as the three genin were focusing all their attention on the man.

Kakashi then released the mud swamp, freeing the genin. "Team 7 is officially a genin squad, congratulations" he spoke as Sakura immediately jumped in the air in joy.

Even Naruto and Sasuke couldn't help the huge smiles that appeared on their faces.

With Tsezuma Azume and Miaku

Tsezuma could feel his heart beating at a very fast pace. He watched wide-eyed as the kunai cut through the air heading for them.

He didn't want to die! He was so young and he had finally found what he wanted to do with his life.

It couldn't end here. His body started to feel weird, especially in his arms. It was like he could feel his bones shifting and oddly it didn't hurt.

His eyes immediately widened as his bones in his arm suddenly ripped through his skin and started to connect forming a circular shield of bone.

Tsezuma immediately rushed in front of his friends as the kunai rained upon them as he used the shield of bone to deflect them.

The men with the blank masks immediately gasped, "N-No way!" one of the men said. "Is that the Kekkai Genkai from the Kaguya clan? I thought they were all dead" another asked.

The man who seemed to be the captain soon spoke up. "Apparently one must've had a kid before they got wiped out, but how odd, he doesn't even have those little red dots on his forehead to compare him with the clan" he stated.

Tsezuma eyes widened, "C-Clan?" he murmured. Miaku and Azume both stared at Tsezuma in shock from behind the boy and the shield, they couldn't believe he used his actual bones to protect them. "Ts-Tsezuma, y-you saved us" Azume spoke amazed.

It was a few seconds before Miaku quickly broke out of his stupor suddenly standing up with anger in his eyes. "So you're the ones who killed everyone huh?" he asked balling his fists in rage.

The captain looked interested, here was a boy that displayed anger instead of fear when seeing a mass killer, he smirked.

"We did, each and everyone in this small pathetic village, the old, women, and children all the same" the man spoke crudely with a maniac glint in his eyes. They didn't leave not a person alive.

Tsezuma body froze in shock as Azume glared at the men. Miaku started shaking in uncontrollable rage, tears rolled down his eyes as he glanced at all the carnage in the village and the many bodies ablaze with fire, these three were the only survivors.

"Y-You're monsters" he whispered, the man immediately busted into laughter. Children were so young and naïve these days, they didn't understand the intricacies of the world around them.

"..Boy, in this world you have to take what you want, people don't just give it to you, we needed something only your village could provide for us, so it was natural for us to take it" the man spoke in all seriousness. This was a dog eat dog world. You either had things or had the means to take it, if not then you were poor.

This caused Miaku to growl, "You can't justify a reason for taking innocent lives!" he yelled out.

Tsezuma quickly looked at the boy, "Calm down Miaku, don't let him egg you on" he spoke urgently. They had to think carefully if they were to survive this.

"Forget it! I can't sit by and hear him talk knowing that he played the part of massacring our home!" he yelled charging the man.

"NO" Tsezuma shouted, "MIAKU!" Azume shouted trying to grab the boy but he maneuvered out of the way.

The captain watched as his guards stepped up, brandishing kunai preparing to slice the boy down.

He got an evil glint in his eye, "No, let me" he said smirking as the two blank headband wearing ninja stood back.

"I won't sit back and cower!" Miaku shouted in his head rushing the man. As he was upon him, he threw a punch that was easily dodged.

He threw another one, only for it to be easily dodged as well. The man threw a powerful uppercut to his stomach that lifted Miaku off his feet.

"Argh!" Miaku grunted out in pain. He could taste the metallic taste of blood entering his mouth. "You're too weak!" the ninja shouted crushing a bow onto Miaku's back forcing him back to the ground where he impacted hard.

"MIAKU!" Tsezuma and Azuma shouted as both boys rushed to his rescue. The four ninja quickly stood in their way as Miaku got beat. The captain looked down at Miaku as the boy glared hatefully at him. He couldn't stand to see the ninja smiling, it disgusted him.

"Scum!" Miaku spat on the face of the man, spit mixed with blood dribbled downed his face as he looked downright pissed.

The captain looked at his ninja, wiping his face with his sleeves "make them suffer" he spoke out in anger as the ninja nodded.

Miaku could barely look up towards his friends, his entire body ached in pain, he had virtually no shinobi training and was attacked by the power of one. "N-No" he coughed out trying to get up.

"AHHH!" Miaku yelled out in pain, he felt the knee of the captain digging in his back as he was grabbed by his hair to be forced to watch his friends fight.

Tsezuma quickly used his bone shield to attack the shinobi, but with his civilian speed, he couldn't hit neither of the two shinobi surrounding him. One of them suddenly used great speed to throw a kick at him as he barely had enough time to put his shield up.

The brunt of the attack forced him back as his shield smacked against his chest. While he was off balanced, the other ninja came from the side punching him square in the face. Blood dribbled out his mouth as the hit seemed to daze him.

"I-Is this the power that ninja posses?" Tsezuma asked himself before he was kicked in the side towards the other ninja as his shield retracted back into his hands from his lost of concentration.

For Azume, his beating was worst. He had no Kekkai Genkai to use as a protection. The two ninja quickly overwhelmed him.

"ungh! You bastards!" he shouted as he stumbled backwards from a knee to the face by one of the men.

He felt as if he could black out at any moment, but before he did, he would go out fighting. He threw a slow and sloppy punch at the ninja who rushed him but it being to slow, he was quickly grabbed getting flipped hard to the ground.

Miaku was forced to watch all this as the man chuckled, "you see what your rash decisions caused. I would've gave you all quick and painless deaths, but you decided to piss me off."

The man and his ninja continued to beat Miaku, Tsezuma, and Azume for almost thirty minutes now.

They beat the three boys to a pulp as each boy's body housed a few fractured bones.

Their entire bodies was lit with pain, they barely could move their limbs. "A-Are we going to die here?" Azume questioned himself, his left eye was closed as blood dribbled from his mouth.

"Pile them up so we can finish this" the captain spoke. The ninja grabbed the almost lifeless body of Tsezuma as they tossed him on top of Azume.

The captain then went to grab Miaku "N-No" he murmured, blood pouring from his mouth as he was grabbed by the throat and threw into the other two boys as they all grunted in pain.

"Let's do this" The captain said as he and his ninja started going through hand signs for a fire release jutsu.

Before they could finish however, their was an enormous spike of Chakra that caused the men to pause. It was very dark and powerful.

They tried to pinpoint the chakra but it seemed to originate from in front of them. Miaku's body slowly started to rise.

The men were shocked as they watched huge waves of chakra come off of Miaku.

Suddenly their windpipes seemed to be getting crushed as they all grabbed at their necks. "Wh-What's happening?" one of the ninja choked out. It felt like an imaginary hand had a firm grip around their neck that they couldn't get loose.

One by one, the ninja went out by suffocation as the captain was the last one, falling to his knees.

Miaku slowly walked up to the man with his head down as the pressure from the choking increased with each step. He moved as if he was possessed.

"argh!" the man choked out, he was confused! These were supposed to be regular children but yet one possessed a kekkai genkai and the other housed a powerful chakra and jutsu that he knew nothing of!

"You and your group killed everyone here without any remorse. Innocent people with lives to live and family and friends to live for. You took the only things me and my friends had and then tried to make us suffer more for it. It's unforgiveable!" Miaku looked up with a powerful glare at the man.

The captain eyes widened in complete shock and horror at what he saw. "DIE!" MIaku yelled as the pressure of the choking increased so high that red finger marks seemed to appear on the man's throat before the invisible fingers suddenly broke through the barrier of skin on the throat as blood splashed out on Miaku's face.

Miaku stared unmoving at the lifeless corpse of the man, he could still see the surprise and fear etched on his face, for what the man saw in Miaku's eyes were thought to only be in folklore.

The Rinnegan. The pair of eyes weren't the light violet they were said to be in ancient history however.

No, these looked more frightening, these looked lifeless. They were black.


End file.
